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Stenhouse Jr. takes the Nationwide championship

November 16, 2012

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Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

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Ricky Stenhouse Jr. knew he didn’t need to roll eights or hit on 18 or do anything remotely risky to ensure his second consecutive Nationwide Series title. He went into Saturday night’s EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway leading Elliott Sadler by 20 points and Austin Dillon by 25, and needed only to finish 16th or better to take the title.

In a Ford Mustang from Roush Fenway Racing, the Cup-bound driver left himself plenty of wiggle room in case something went bad. He started fourth, stayed among the top-10 virtually all afternoon and won the big hardware with a solid, no-nonsense, workmanlike sixth-place finish in the season-ending 200-lap, 300-miler. “I wanted to win the race,” he said. “That’s what we want every weekend, what we come to tracks to do. I don’t think about what can happen when I run hard. I like to drive hard; I don’t like to go out and just ride around. I didn’t come here to run sixth.”

Maybe not, but that was easily enough to beat Sadler by 23 points and Dillon, the series Rookie of the Year, by 24. (Dillon’s younger brother, Ty, was this year’s Camping World Truck Series ROTY). Stenhouse is the sixth back-to-back Nationwide champion, following Sam Ard in 1983-1984, Larry Pearson in 1986-1987, Randy LaJoie in 1996-1997, Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 1998-1999, and Martin Truex Jr. in 2004-2005. He will drive the No. 17 Fusion for Roush Fenway Racing next year as a Sprint Cup rookie.

Chevy driver Regan Smith led the final 22 laps for his first-ever Nationwide win, this one for JR Motorsports. He beat pole-winner Kyle Busch, Brendan Gaughan, Sam Hornish Jr., Dillon, Stenhouse, Brian Scott, Sadler, Ryan Blaney and Cole Whitt. A former Cup driver – he won the 2011 Southern 500 for Furniture Row Racing – Smith will chase the 2013 Nationwide title for team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Busch led 49 of the first 50 laps and 89 of the first 93. (Joey Logano led one of the other four and Elliott Sadler three). Busch had lapped up to 19th-place when he made his first pit stop under green at lap 48. He had lapped two more drivers – Patrick was up next – when the first caution for Ryan Truex’s crash slowed the field at lap 66. The race was slowed four more times, once for debris, two for incidents involving Robert Richardson Jr. and one involving Johanna Long after contact from Logano.

The final 107 laps were somewhat more competitive than the first 93. Smith led laps 94-95, Patrick 96-99, Hornish 100-105 and Dillon 106-148. Stenhouse led 149-150 and Kenny Wallace led 151-152 while green-flag pit stops cycled through. Dillon then led 153-175 before Kevin Swindell took the lead under caution and led laps 176-178. Smith easily dispatched him and led from 179 to the finish at 200. It was his first win in 103 Nationwide starts.

“It's what we needed to do tonight,” Smith said. “Our goal was to get information, get data and knowledge for next year, to figure out areas where we can do better. Certainly, I don’t want to look past the win, but I feel there are things we could have done better tonight. So there’s still stuff to work on. We want to continue to do this next year and be on the frontstretch [as champion] at the end of the year.”

All told, Busch led twice for 89 laps, Dillon twice for 66 and Smith twice for 24. The remaining 21 laps in front were spread among Hornish (six), Patrick (four), Sadler and Swindell (three each), Stenhouse and Wallace (two each) and Logano for one lap. Five cautions slowed the race for 24 laps and Smith averaged 128.817 mph in giving JR Motorsports its first win since Jamie McMurray near Atlanta in September of 2011.

The final top-10 in Nationwide Series points: Stenhouse, Sadler (-23), Dillon (-24), Sam Hornish Jr. (-105), Michael Annett (-169), Justin Allgaier (-175), Cole Whitt (-257), Mike Bliss (-349), Brian Scott (-398) and Danica Patrick (413). Helped by the fact that only 13 drivers run the full 33-race schedule, Patrick became the first female to finish top-10 in a major NASCAR series.